Autodesk Build vs. NoteVault

Plangrid is well suited for companies (that are not currently using a different SaaS construction package) to make their construction document management more collaborative and mobile friendly. Companies requiring/wanting their subs and owners to collaborate with them as part of the life of a construction project will find Plangrid very helpful in fulfilling this goal. On the negative side, companies that are fully entrenched in using other construction suites will struggle to fully use Plangrid to its potential as pre-built integration between Plangrid and other packages is limited

Incentivized

NoteVault helps to reduce the amount of time to produce a daily report and makes the typically burdensome task easier to accomplish. Our Superintendents are able to craft their daily reports as they see the work activities being performed as opposed to trying to remember what happened during the day and then writing down those activities with accuracy after a long day in the field. NoteVault also allows our Superintendents to keep accurate manpower counts, material deliveries, equipment on site and weather reports.

• Very easy to use, and training takes less than a few hours for field staff.
• Connects office to field quickly and efficiently.
• Uploading , naming, and tagging sheet is the best in the business.
• Sheet and document manager always display most current information and also gives you the ability to look back at previous versions for changes.

Incentivized

• Enhances safety; instead of writing notes, with my head down buried in a notebook, I am aware and looking around. I work on highway repair projects next to live traffic and all types of construction equipment moving in all directions and overhead.
• Documentation; I got in a dispute with a contractor recently and won it immediately by showing my Notevault notes with time stamped photos of the disputed work.
• Communication; I can keep other support staff back in the home office up to date with project developments and they get to see what is going on .

Incentivized

• It'd be nice to have access to upload and edit documents from the app. Only for certain users.
• A small business billing option that addresses multiple users of a single account would make managing access simpler. Being able to load unlimited sheets, but only access a specific limit on your team's devices.
• Allow users to integrate their own RFI templates into the app, so RFIs can be generated in your own format right from the field, immediately ready to ship.

Incentivized

• The website for administrators setting up projects and users could be improved. It's hard to find where things are located. I would like it in more of a Office (Word) template, with tabs up top. Some things are in Settings, some are in tabs, some are on the right side.

Incentivized

We are at the point where we have shown our teams what is possible with this software. We cannot take it away and go back to the way we used to do things. I think that they would push back on us to give them access to something electronic. It is a good program that we will continue to use

Incentivized

It flat works and has paid for itself quickly.

Hard to get the hang of this software, but with time it become very repetitive and easier to navigate. I have used this software for over a year now and the constant updates by Autodesk have made the software better and better to use at work. This allows me to use this tool more effectively

Incentivized

Simple use of functions. Majority of people can become familiar with this product fairly quick

Incentivized

Online chat during business hours is extremely helpful. The Plangrid staff has gone above and beyond many times to help us. One time they even offered to completely rebuild our 900+ sheet project so I could slip sheet a few old drawing revisions! This undoubtedly would have taken hours on Plangrid's end. They are always responsive and are continually improving, listening to user feedback.

Incentivized

Procore and PlanGrid are the most direct competitors. The pricing structures are very dynamically different between PlanGrid and Procore. Procore tends to succeed better in the "project management" realm, while PlanGrid succeeds far beyond Procore in its ability to deal with project documentation (plans and specs). Bim360 is a great product, but it is limited in its use due to the modeling requirement; while PlanGrid bridges that gap and plays in both 2D and 3D spaces. Buildertrend has some aspects of plan distribution, but it is limited in functionality.

Incentivized

Notevault is who we decided to use, for the simple fact that it is the easiest on the market for our foremen to use. Make it easy, and they'll actually do it. Make it bulky and cumbersome, and they'll do a way less accurate job of daily reporting. This is why Notevault works for us... IT'S EASY!!

• Positive: Syncing drawings. As I said, keeping an up-to-date set of drawings is seamless on ProCore, as compared to a traditional server or even the cloud. The software is designed to see and mark-up drawings. Though markup tools aren't as robust as, say, Bluebeam Revu (I wouldn't expect all of that from a web app, anyway), it's very nice to easily see all the newest drawings.
• Positive: Saved time. Documents are updated at the same time, across all devices, with only one upload.
• Positive: Punch list is easy. ProCore punch lists are quite complicated. In PlanGrid, with 1-tap we can add items and give a brief description. When doing a walk-thru, it should be easy to jot down notes. These can be detailed once you're sitting at a desk, and PlanGrid allows for that. But for field personnel, punch lists are an easy and efficient use of time.
• Negative: Photo management. For us, there should be a way to just upload photos, and not require to use the photo tool within the app.

Incentivized

• It has made it easy for our guys out in the filed to report all that is needed for daily reports so there is no scrabbling to remember and report at a later time.
• NoteVault has had no negative impact for us at all.

Incentivized